Far-right sheriffs want to carry out mass deportations of Donald Trump. This is not possible

“If we wanted to pass immigration law, we would work for the Border Patrol,” Wilmot says.

Homan, Lamb, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Daniels and incoming Pinal County Sheriff Russ Table, who also attended the meeting, did not respond to requests for comment about what they discussed.

When asked about Mack and his efforts to make sheriffs an important part of mass deportation efforts, Wilmot rejected the former mayor’s claims.

“Nobody listens to him,” Wilmot says. “He hasn’t been sheriff in a long time. He doesn’t deal with sheriffs across the country. He’s not involved in any of our decisions. He’s pushing his own agenda.”

In response, Mack claims to have held more than 100 seminars and conferences with more than 1,200 mayors since leaving office. “I call on Sheriff Wilmot to do what we ask all sheriffs to do, just come and see our class for yourself,” he told WIRED. “If you don’t like it, criticize me and the work I do.”

Jessica Peshko, attorney and author of the recently published book The highest law in the landa book examining the absolute power of the mayor, agrees with Wilmot. “I would be wary of taking anything Richard Mack says seriously,” she says. “He was not part of the first Trump administration, and there is no reason to think they need Mack. Everything he does is to promote himself.”

Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment on what role, if any, Mack or other sheriffs would play in helping fulfill campaign pledges to rid the United States of unauthorized immigrants.

Trump promised Mass Deportations during his first term, but he failed to achieve his goals. Total annual deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2016 and 2020 averaged just over 300,000 — a significant decline compared to 380,000 people. It is carried forward annually During the presidency of Barack Obama.

But during this election campaign, Trump and his allies made clear that the scale and speed of deportation plans during his second term would be on a different level.

“Trump will unleash a vast arsenal of federal powers to carry out the most dramatic immigration crackdown,” says Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who formalized the child separation policy alongside Homan during Trump’s first term. He told the New York Times More than a year ago.